Culture & History Digital Journal

The Usefulness of Data in the Study of the Feminisation and Re-Masculinisation of Religion in Spain (1880-1930)

2024-02-21T17:04:04+01:00

The feminisation of religion is a category used for organizing the knowledge on sexual difference in modern imaginary. Concerning Spain at the turn of the twentieth century, the analysis of data on the participation of men and women in pious activities can serve to enrich the study of the feminisation and re-masculinisation of religion. First, it allows us to assess that the pious practices related to the most significant dates in the Catholic calendar was, regularly, similar for both sexes. Moreover, the use of data can test the hypothesis that sometimes there existed a notion of feminisation of religion even in a context where there was no substantial difference de facto between sexes concerning religious practice. This phenomenon could be explained by such a notion being imported from places where such a trend was indeed underway. I do not argue for a return to the ways and methods typical of social history in its heyday; what I strive for is to engage with the current lines of research on the feminisation and re-masculinisation of religion and carry out a nuanced analysis of the available data that would enrich or modify the prevailing interpretation of both phenomena.

Marriage Institution and Christianity in Nsukka, Nigeria: Between Acculturation and Syncretism, 1970-2013

2024-02-21T17:21:25+01:00

Religious influence on marriage institution in Nsukka society has not enjoyed robust scholarly investigation. The upsurge of different Christian denominations with the competitive drive for evangelization of Nsukka opened new vistas for disconnects in some institutions. Christianity, in its acculturation effort, has become increasingly syncretic with respect to the sacredness of marriage institution. This study is an attempt at an insightful interpretation of traditional control mechanisms that have sustained marriages for both Christians and traditionalists. The study submits that Christians’ profane attacks on the indigenous religion; notwithstanding, it has at the centre-stage controlling the dynamics of marriage institution among the Nsukka Igbo.

Spanish tourist industry during the Franco’s regime through the touristic cinema (1951-1977)

2024-02-22T09:09:29+01:00

Mass tourism in Spain became one of the most prosperous economic sectors in the mid-twentieth century, collaborating in the process of convergence with Europe, using the seductive power of the media, especially the cinema. A quantitative and (to a lesser extent) qualitative analysis methodology was followed. After reviewing the academic literature, the records of the National Film Library were consulted, selecting 87 films of tourist content and of national production, during the period of operation of the Ministry of Information and Tourism (1951-1977). The results have made it possible to identify the tourist segments, the cinematographic genres, the type of tourists, national or foreign, as well as the heritage elements and the services present in the tourist product of the time, visualizing the scenarios where the plots of the films are developed. The cinematography allows showing the elements that constitute the economic tourism model of Franco’s Spain, focused on towns on the Mediterranean coast, especially on the Costa del Sol. The research translates the antecedents of tourism marketing, using cinema as a means of communication that recognizes the economic transformation of Spanish society and the new image of Spain to be projected abroad.

"Such pushing and shoving… and the smell! Why ever would they allow these people in to the Academy” sociability and body language of Madrid's museums visitors (19th century)

2024-04-30T08:51:57+02:00

In 1828 preparations were being made for the opening of the first public museum in Spain: the Royal Prado Museum. Along with the placement of the works of art and the control of their security, visitors were an essential part of the organisation of the establishment. Although the valued role of museums as democratisers of culture has been emphasised, more recent studies have observed that the first visitors to European museums were not from all social strata. This article aims to analyse the public museum as an arena of sociability and to investigate the involvement of social elites in both the control of access and the imposition of behavioural models within these "temples of the arts.” For this reason, this paper approaches the debate around the concept of citizenship. On the one hand, it explores the gradual opening of museums to all social classes and the social debates surrounding it. On the other hand, it analyses the use of the museum as a space of symbolic battle for the appropriation of these scenarios and the creation of exclusion dynamics to limit interactions between social classes. Therefore, the text analyses, among other sources of analysis, the body language of visitors. An object of study that has been understudied but which can offer us interesting answers.

There’s another element which I can’t find the words for. Tosquelles, a cultural history from the literary and artistic avant-gardes

2024-04-30T09:02:11+02:00

This article analyzes a number of practices explored by the psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles which, due to their absence from the cultural and political histories of the twentieth century, have left no trace in our hegemonic historical narratives. Today these practices allow us to rethink the meaning of the medical, literary, and artistic avant-garde movements that informed Tosquelles’s retelling, from the place “other”, of key political events such as the Spanish Second Republic, the Civil War, and the subsequent Republican exile in France. The reflections are organized around three dialogues: Tosquelles’s reading of Gabriel Ferrater’s poem “In memoriam” for which he mobilizes Roman Jakobson’s intellectual and linguistic legacy; his account of Gérard de Nerval’s story Aurélia, where Tosquelles—far from surrendering to the fascination with the figure of the romantic genius—critically distinguishes between the notions of dream and delirium; and finally, Tosquelles’s discussion with the art brut theoretician and artist Jean Dubuffet about their disagreement over the sense of the artistic productions made by inmates of psychiatric hospitals. Through these three intellectual exchanges Tosquelles formulates his vision of the avant-garde movements for which “without the recognition of the human value of madness, it is man himself that disappears.”

When Silence Creates Memory: Performed Communities in Nineteenth-century Spanish and French Commemorations

2024-04-30T09:09:23+02:00

Recently, the Third Phase in memory studies has challenged traditional concepts of memory that conceived it to be a concrete image or narrative set within a fixed moment and, consequently, neglect its changeable dimension and malleability. Focusing on a constructed narrative of the past, scholars have renewed the theoretical and methodological basis of this analytical field. This study adopts this new conceptualisation to analyse the intertwining of memory and silence in official commemorations during the regencies of María Cristina (1833–40) and Espartero (1840–43) in Spain and the July Monarchy (1830–48) in France. Its main contribution is to show that a deliberate omission of a narrative cannot only be linked to oblivion and can even become a space for creating memory.

Introduction. Transfers and cultural diplomacy in a global campus: new studies in university history

2024-02-02T11:10:47+01:00

Transatlantic cultural embassies: Georges Clemenceau in Buenos Aires and Paul Groussac in Paris, 1910-1911. Intellectual relations and university life

2023-06-05T07:56:01+02:00

This article analyses Georges Clemenceau’s visits to Buenos Aires, undertaken in 1910, and their connections with Paul Groussac’s visit to Paris, in 1911. The text aims to show the dynamics that were established between the two events and proposes consideration of the visits that they made as a means of studying transatlantic intellectual connections at a moment immediately before the interwar period, which has been studied in historiography with categories such as scientific or academic exchanges and mobility, intellectual cooperation, and so on. That is, it tries to show how the links between France and a Latin American country were consolidated in circumstances not yet clearly institutionalized and formalized by state entities or agencies. The notion of “cultural ambassadors” is proposed to address the role played by visitors, following the proposal made by the bibliography in reference to the overlaps between official and non-governmental missions in the processes of building exchange ties, intellectual relationships, and other forms of contact between nations.

Machiavelli in the classroom: circulation and transfer of knowledge between Europe and the Americas

2023-09-05T10:02:41+02:00

The article studies the reception and interpretation of Machiavelli in Spain and Hispanic America between 1914 and 1950, focusing on considerations regarding the thoughts of the Florentine author expressed by prominent Argentine and Spanish professors of Political Law and Philosophy of Law, among them: Mariano de Vedia y Mitre, Faustino Legón, Tomás Casares, Adolfo Posada, Luis Legaz y Lacambra and Francisco Javier Conde. Through this analysis, the article addresses two problems: the academic and university reception of Machiavelli, and the characteristics of liberal and illiberal political thought during the selected period.

Political and Academic Relations in Turbulent Times. The Deutsch-Spanische Gesellschaft and University Falangism, 1939-1945

2023-06-09T14:20:34+02:00

Political and cultural relations between Germany and Spain during World War II have been the subject of considerable attention in recent years. This article is part of this field of study and aims to analyze the role of the Deutsch-Spanische Gesellschaft (DSG) in a hitherto little-explored aspect such as the establishment of its links with important Falangist political leaders who were also prominent figures in the Spanish university. The aim is to show how academic diplomacy allowed for closer political ties between the Third Reich and Francoism, which resulted in the incorporation of some elements of National Socialism into the legal, institutional, and academic architecture of the New Spanish State. The work devotes special attention to the figure of Pedro Laín Entralgo, as a case study, and is based mainly on archival documentation from the DSG (Bundesarchiv-Berlin-Lichterfelde-) and the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Geheimes Staatsarchiv-Berlin-), among other primary sources.

A Catholic safe haven: University students from Eastern Europe in Spain during Francoism

2023-10-23T20:22:52+02:00

In 1946, Madrid became home to a Catholic university residence, the colegio mayor Santiago Apóstol, which catered specifically to refugee students from Eastern Europe who had fled the aftermath of the Second World War and the creation of Communist regimes in their home countries. This residence hall, which housed about 800 students from 20 nationalities between its opening in the postwar era and its rededication in 1969, was part of the anticommunist governmental strategy to overcome the political isolation that Francoist Spain found itself in. It was also part of the efforts of the Catholic church to support refugees from Eastern Europe in the early Cold War. This article aims to bring these strands together, focusing on the founding of the residence hall as a Catholic and governmental endeavor. In a second step, the article focuses on the residence hall itself, considering the agency of the residence’s officials and its students, and contemplating the residence’s academic and exile networks both in Spain and internationally.

Between Spain and the United States. The Del Amo Foundation and its scientific projects for the Spanish university (1929-1979)

2023-09-17T09:17:14+02:00

In 1929 Gregorio del Amo, a Spanish businessman settled in California, sponsored an American Foundation named after himself and devoted to the promotion of scientific and academic projects between Spain and the US. His first target was the creation of a University Residence at the Madrid campus but the entire project also included student exchange programs, funding of scientific projects linked with Spanish companies, and promotion of Spanish culture across the US. This article aims to present the main activities developed by the Del Amo Foundation during the 50 years of its history, to explore the transfers, links, and expectations with Spanish culture, university, and administration. Particular attention will be paid attention to the kind of political and academic relations that Del Amo Foundation promoted, especially during Franco’s time, as a part of the new role that Franco wanted to play on the international stage.

A Global Campus Beyond the Cold War. Peace and Disarmament Among Spanish Academics during the Debate on Joining and Remaining in NATO (1981-1986)

2023-10-23T20:14:42+02:00

Historiography has recently shown a special interest in assessing the cultural impact of the social engagement of academics during the Cold War through their advocacy of disarmament or human rights. This academic social activism became part of a complex “transnational civil society,” which was to influence international relations. In light of these considerations, this article aims to delve into the distinctive characteristics of the “nuclear culture” and “science diplomacy” of the Spanish academic world between 1981 and 1986. Spain’s experience of the final stage of the Cold War was somewhat unusual. The resurgence of nuclear tension between the two superpowers was mediated by the domestic political transition from a military dictatorship to a parliamentary democracy, but also by the democratisation of foreign policy and the accession of Spain to NATO. To understand how this took place and with what effects, this article will focus on three main points. Firstly, it will set out an analysis of the impact of historian E.P. Thompson’s critical thinking on the Cold War and the European Campaign for Disarmament among Spanish academics. Secondly, it will examine how certain academics, who played an active part in the debate either for or against joining and remaining in NATO, shaped the nuclear culture of the time through the daily press. Finally, it will argue the involvement, or lack thereof, of Spain’s scientific sector in transnational networks for peace and disarmament and how, through civil society itself, the foundations were laid for the first centres aimed at the dissemination and study of peace.